Vol. 3 Chapter 40: The Dark Library

Thanks to x19 Unlimited for your donation!~ Will try to schedule in another chapter somewhere next week, though I’m really busy this month.

Aliyah first went out of the library, and then she leapt onto one of the windows at the side and re-entered the library. And because I didn’t enter the library through the main entrance, I naturally wouldn’t do the same thing.

And the library isn’t a high-class place, so naturally, there aren’t any traps or reinforcements in place on the windows at the first floor.

“Alright, how are we going to do this?”

Looking at the assassin-like Aliyah, who was dressed in black, I whispered.

Of course, I changed my appearance as well. Although I do not have a clue whether there’s anyone patrolling the upper floors, but, it’s best to disguise myself in such situations.

“Usually, whenever we enter a different floor, there will be a scan on your body’s unique magical signature to determine your level of authorization. Of course, this is the safest method, as your body’s magical signature are the same as your fingerprints, and everyone has different magical signatures inside their bodies. So, we’re unable to enter through the main entrance.”

Aliyah pointed at a staircase that goes up to the next floor. The entire staircase was sealed off, and there was even a special metal equipment in place. Looks like it’s that piece of equipment which scans our bodies’ magical signature.

“Is it possible to disguise our magical signature?”

“It might be possible, but I don’t have that sort of skill. After all, I don’t understand magical signatures at all.”

“Even I do understand them, I won’t know either. Currently, I still don’t even know how to use these magical signaturees.”

“Alright.”

Aliyah shrugged.

“Then we just have to enter from another route.”

“Isn’t that our initial plan?”

Hence, silently, we began to roam the first floor.

There’s only a single supervising teacher in the library, and he’s stationed at the entrance. By now, he should already be sleeping soundly, so we don’t really need to mind about him at all.

“Usually, there will always be a passage reserved for staff use, behind the staff office. After all, that way, the teachers here won’t need to spend a single cent on those equipment.”

“Staff office, is it?”

I looked in all four directions, but in fact, I was referencing my mini-map to what I was looking at in front of me.

“It should be that room over there.”

I pointed to the room that was hiding in the corner.

“Is that so? Then you really saved us some trouble.”

Aliyah walked over, took out a stack of weird keys and fiddled with the lock.

‘Ka.’ The door opened.

“Alright, let’s go.”

After saying that, she pushed the door open and entered.

Aliyah’s skillful technique looked pretty simple. In the future, I must definitely learn this skill.

After hurrying into the room, once again, I saw a familiar-looking messy room.

Is it standard for all staff offices to be this messy? Are all the teachers as lazy as Ms. Mari?

“Stop looking around. Hurry up.”

Aliyah pointed to the stairs in the room. She then took the lead and walked over.

However, when I was walking towards the stairs, I suddenly felt something was wrong!

But in that instant, I did not know how to describe the feeling I felt into words. It felt like something was warning me of the danger in front of us.

And this set of stairs could only access the second floor, and does not lead up to the next few floors. I honestly wonder what’s the point of this design.

“Aliyah!”

I grabbed onto her hand.

“Ah… What is it?”

“Careful!”

“Eh?”

“In the past, did you encounter anything when you stole the books from your school library?”

“Encounter what? Are you referring to monsters?”

“Yeah… Or something similar to them.”

“Well… I didn’t encounter any. But back then, there were still people in the upper floors, so no matter what happened, monsters shouldn’t appear, right?”

“But the problem is…”

Before I could finish, Aliyah opened the door at the end of the staircase. But immediately after, a black-colored arm suddenly appeared out of the door, and pulled Aliyah in!

“Aaaah! What the hell is this!?”

Aliyah screamed as she was pulled into the next room, and of course, since I was still holding onto Aliyah’s hand, I was naturally dragged inside as well!

“Ice Sword Summon!”

I quickly pulled out my tachi, and reinforced it with the Magic Knight’s spell. Then, I leapt high into the air, as I directed a slash onto the black arm.

The opponent’s arm was immediately sliced off, and at the same time, a blue magic formation instantly covered it’s sliced arm.

And taking the opportunity, I once again swung my tachi downwards, and it’s frozen arm was broken into pieces. At the same moment, Aliyah was released.

“Are you alright? Let’s go!”

Seeing the black arm disappearing into the darkness, I grabbed onto Aliyah and sprinted towards the direction of the stairs.

Are you kidding me? I can’t even see the name of that monster. How will it be possible for us to win against that sort of thing?

But, just when I arrived at the entrance of the stairs I took earlier with Aliyah, suddenly, I realized the door couldn’t be opened from the inside!

Speaking of which, we’re already at the second floor, and it’s the area where the elementary-grade skill books are held. It’s already considered to be the inner areas of the library. How would it be possible for a passage like this to be opened from the inside, when students might use it to escape after stealing some books?

Looks like in a situation when the library is completely empty, a weird defensive mechanism will be activated! This is becoming really troublesome!

“Looks like we have to hurry. We disturbed something that we shouldn’t have disturbed.”

“That’s right. Is your waist alright?”

I looked at Aliyah’s waist. A scratch mark was left on her armor.

“I’m fine. This soft armor is actually created from a very sturdy material. It took me some effort to steal it.”

“Hey… You’re saying…”

“If I can’t buy it, I have to steal it, right? No, to be exact, I forcefully took it away.”

“That’s stealing.”

“You’re really a fool. Think. When you’re playing an RPG, and you take some stuffs from a cabinet in a villager’s house, do you pay for them?”

“Ob… Obviously not.”

“That’s the point. I only entered their house and took some stuffs. Since I’m able to take them, why do I have to pay for them?”

“Fine, I’m wrong, alright? Let’s hurry onto the next floor. The books here don’t have any value to me at all.”

”“That’s of course. But the next floor isn’t that simple. In my initial plan, I wanted to climb up from the windows at the side, or find another staircase up. But currently, it seems we can do neither.”

“…”

I looked at the library that was currently enveloped in darkness, and began thinking.

“Maybe… We can make use of that monster.”

“Hah?”

“Think. That monster couldn’t have appeared out of thin air. It must have appeared from somewhere, right?”